pondering life

Today as I was driving to visit Lauren, I happened upon a rather disturbing scene. Just after crossing Santa Monica Blvd., I stopped abruptly behind a line of cars that were stopped for a man who was walking right across the middle of the street. As he walked by, I noticed that his entire right side was covered in blood. From the top of his arm, down to the bottom of his leg. It looked like some people were watching him across the street and just as I was contemplating calling 911, the firetruck and ambulance pulled up. The good Samaritans across the street directed them to the man, who was wandering up an alley behind Cost Plus.

Not only was it troubling to see someone covered in blood, it was also disturbing that he was just wandering around. He was obviously somewhat of a lost soul. I've been thinking a lot about homeless people, especially since 1) Los Angeles has more homeless people than anywhere else in the US (and not because the weather's nice, it's because they are particularly poorly taken care of here) and 2)because homeless people often end up in public libraries, one of the few indoor places open to them during the day.

A couple of times this week I've seen a man in the library where I'm doing my internship. I'm not an expert, but I'm pretty sure he has schizophrenia because he paces around the library, talking to unseen people. At first this was a little scary to me, especially because he sounded angry (referring to the voices as "you son of a bitch" or "you bitch"). But yesterday I spent quite a bit of time near him and I listened a little longer. I just ended up feeling sad. He kept plaintively declaring that he couldn't take it anymore and asking the unseen people, "why won't you leave with me?"

I don't really know what to say, except that I'm glad that there are some kind souls living in LA and that the public library is a place where people who have nowhere else to go find comfort.